Thursday, August 21, 2014

Chapter 22

It
was a push to get through the crowd as everyone seemed to be going the opposite
direction. Aunt Pearl said, "My goodness, they must really want to
get over to the bread store before it closes."

I looked at Linda and she explained, "There's a couple of local businesses
that bring their day old bread and stuff like that to sell it off rather than
watch it go bad. Towards the end of the day they deep discount what is
left and people go nuts."

I frowned and looked over where people were heading but Linda said, "Trust
me, by this time of day it is the really nasty stuff that tastes like used
sponge. Besides, you can make your own bread."

"Yeah ... when I have the ingredients for it. I've already run
through a lot of that cornmeal you sent which reminds me, don't I owe you or
somebody for that?"

"No and shut up. Try and talk Sawyer into letting you go and you can
get everything you need."

A voice behind me said, "Talk Sawyer into what?"

I jumped. "Oh."

"Did I scare you?" he asked with a grin, obviously back to how he
normally was ... or at least the way I had seen him most often. Aunt
Pearl and Linda looked at him strange though.

"Yes you do and you meant to." He just grinned even bigger.
"It's ... well ... do you ... Look, Linda said they're going by the
Mennonite store and I know you have things you need to do in town but is there
time to ..."

"Oh is that all. Sure, if you want to go we'll go. Bet Aunt
Pearl was talking about their fantastic prices. We'll have to ... er ...
work the budget."

"I bought two pairs of shoes maybe I shouldn't have but that's about
it."

He slapped his forehead.

"Stop that, you're going to give yourself a concussion. What did you
forget this time?" Linda snickered in surprise but jumped back and
stuck her tongue out when Sawyer tried to pull her ponytail.

"I didn't forget anything," he said turning back to me. "I
just should have figured that you'd need special stuff and ..."

Some of the fun went out of everything but I tried not to let it show as I
said, "I don't need special shoes. I have my braces. So long
as the brace and the shoe fit together I'm good to go."

A shrill voice to my side said, "Oh Kayley ... you got off so lucky.
You used to have to wear so much hardware you clanked everywhere you
went."

I turned to see Rose Marie Lobaino, heir apparent to the captaincy of the
cheerleading squad. "Hey Rosie."

She made a face but I didn't care. She knows my name is Kay-Lee, not
Kayley, and she also knows I used to let it irritate me when people made the mistake
whether it was innocent or not. But in return I know she despises being
called "Rosie." Just a small shot across her bow to remind her
that she wasn't the only one with claws.

"The rumors are so stupid. They say you got married."

"I did."

"Nooo."

"Yeeesssss. Look, I'm kinda busy with family stuff so ..."

"But you don't have a family."

Aunt Pearl was a very no-nonsense kind of woman and told her, "She does
now. So if you have something to say then say it otherwise scat and stop
trying to start a fight. I don't have time for that kind of
immaturity."

Linda and I couldn't even look at each other after seeing the horrified look on
Rose Marie's face and how quickly she disappeared over into her clutch of
friends. Aunt Pearl shook her head. "You know, I'm less sorry
every day I didn't have any girls of my own. I'm not sure they would have
survived to adulthood had they acted like that." She said it loud
enough that there was some outraged squawking from the clutch of ninnies but I
didn't have time to even tell myself it was rude to gloat because Aunt Pearl
was directing us into helping her to grab some of the deals left at the end of
the day.

I wouldn't let Sawyer descend into depression again as I started using him like
a pack mule to hold all the dollar bags of produce that Aunt Pearl was buying.
Tommy got roped into the same job and soon enough all the Hartford men
had something in their hands as we cleared out several of the booths like
locusts before the first Passover. When the other vendors saw we were in
the mood to buy, even if something was a little bruised or on its last day of
freshness we got a lot of deals and everyone seemed to have a good time ...
Aunt Pearl and the vendors both got what they wanted in the give and take of haggling.I got a few special deals when a couple of
vendors found out I spoke Spanish.Aunt
Pearl had me tell the old Spanish guy that seemed to be in charge that he had
the biggest, prettiest this, that’s, and the others that she had ever seen for
sale this time of year.I then got
caught in the middle of a conversation the two had until Aunt Pearl and the old
man decided it was time to close his booth up.

"Come along Children, let's get this to the coolers. The day has
warmed up and I don't want to risk anything spoiling," said Aunt Pearl in
a voice not even MacArthur would have dared to disobey.